I have to readily confess to not being a fan of the Van Beuren studio’s cartoons of the 1930s. This is strange, as I love all of those cartoon studios we’re told to stay away from (Lantz, Famous, Terrytoons) for the good of our health. But when Steve Stanchfield announced that he would be selling The Complete Animated Adventures of Van Beuren Studio’s Tom and Jerry, I just couldn’t pass it up. And I’m glad I didn’t.
Do not be expecting cartoons with any kind of skillful writing, animation, or draftsmanship. In fact, it’s best to go into this without expecting anything good. What you can expect is some drunken cartoon fun with no redeeming value whatsoever.
The Van Beuren cartoons essentially are clones of the contemporary Terrytoons; both are fairly indistinguishable from each other (at least in my eyes). There’s even a blatant Farmer Alfalfa knockoff in Barnyard Bunk. Like the Terrytoons, these Van Beuren Tom & Jerrys never show any of the ambition commonly found in the Fleischer studio’s cartoons, nor its advanced animation and draftsmanship. Watching these cartoons makes one really appreciates the strides the Fleischer animators were making in all of those fancy filmmaker terms.
A lot of them are also overtly racist, and that is taking into account that the ‘newest’ ones were made in 1933. There’s no playful caricature like you’d see in a Fleischer short; the gag is just that the character is a black, gay, or Jew, made even more offensive by the lame drawing skills.
So why on earth would you buy this?
Some of them are so bizarre they’re actually good. Absolute “Bowl of WTF” contenders are things like The Magic Mummy and ‘Waffles and Don’ Gypped in Egypt, which give Fleischer entries like Swing You Sinners a run for their money in terms of weird for weirdness sake (though certainly not in artistry). Hook & Ladder Hokum is attributed as Frank Tashlin’s directorial debut, and isn’t half-bad, with gags and timing he’d perfect at Warners in Porky the Fireman. Some like Piano Tooners and Pots and Pans are examples of 1930s cartoons at their generically delightful best.
One upside to this collection is that faux-Disney saccharine (Disney Splenda?) is completely absent, an epidemic that contaminated all of the studios of the 1930s, and almost always resulting in sheer 3-Strip eye rape. With cartoons as random in quality as these ones, it’s nice that you can be reassured you won’t be subjected to seven minutes of bunnies getting ready for Easter.
But the main reason to buy this is because Steve Stanchfield is one of the nicest guys around, and did an amazing job putting all of this rare material together. It is very convenient having all of this series’ cartoons in one place, some of them even mastered from great 35mm prints. Steve has put out several other collections of Van Beuren cartoons, but for my money, this is the best one. In this market, we have to hand it to people like Steve, Ray Pointer, and Tom Stathes for continuing to utilize animation’s vast public domain library, while the big studios sit on their asses leaving everything on the shelves to collect dust.
So if you want to see the Van Beuren studio doing what it did, um, best, pick this set up. But think twice before getting those Rainbow Parades…
I do like them drawr’ins you selected, despite your point (taken)…
(Don’t collect prints meself, but like the idea there’s a circulatory community out there in celluloid and archiving,- so, hats off to those gents…I’m still trying to keep abreast of Stathes’ events around NYC, but have yet to attend…)
Now, an errant question… there’s this Porky cartoon where Daffy is running a hotel and successively looses some agitating animal into Porky’s room, (mouse succeeded by cat, succeeded by dog) to ring-up surcharges. The dog sequence is superb, a Boxer, who clicks into jabbing mode when daffy strikes a bell, and socks Porky about to great effect… could be an early Mckimson(?) or a Freleng (?) ’46-’47(?)
Do ya know which one ‘m talkin’ about?
Yeah, the cartoons are of such random quality there HAS to be a good drawing here and there. That Warner short is a McKimson – Dime to Retire (’55). McKimson actually animated half of that one himself.
Thanks! I’ll have ta look for’t.
Yeah, what about Thad??
Hmmm…
Thanks for the heads-up on this–I’ve just placed my order. Your critique of Van Beuren in general, and T&J in particular is fair and insightful. Me, I’ve always liked the VB cartoons for their sheer “uninhibitedness” and crude exuberance of the gags and animation–they know they’re not making “art,” they’re just having fun (Here’s a good drinking game: put on a disk of Van Beuren cartoons, and drink every time you see a skeleton or a piano).
I, too, have ordered both of the Steve Stanchfield sets. He does good work, and I’m willing to vote him in as overseer to the Warner Archives collections, alongside Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein; what do you think of that? On the subject of Van Buren Studios’ work in general, yes, I like their overall grittiness and lack of anything cloying. I wish there was more representation of the East Coast studios on DVD shelves, and I don’t just mean public domain material. Often, you don’t get a clean picture or account of what the subject is all about unless you’re looking at a restoration of some sort. If it still seems awful upon further restoration, then, indeed, it is a golden turkey. I would give anything from the 1930’s the benefit of the doubt, though, and just have all of it restored to as close as original master as humanly possible. Our video shelves, this year, have been left truly wanting, and all Warner Brothers can do is release another useless GREATEST CHASES collection of TOM & JERRY cartoons. C’mon; I mean, even the parents and otherwise clueless kids must be bored with that by now!
Hey man, on the subject of McKimson, you reckon he animated the bulk of the Costello mouse in his Mouse-merized Cat? Some animation to shoot for in that one! The escapades with the cat are pat, but the interaction between the meeses,–the coercion and the hypnotism, is amazing!
McKimson never animated on his own cartoons (though he’d have loved to) save a few cartoons in the mid-50s that he had to because he didn’t have a full staff for his unit. Off the top of my head though, Don Williams did a ton of footage in Mouse-Merized Cat, and was the “star” of that particular one.
Innerestin’, thanks for taking the time to answer me idle queries. Keep it coming!
Thanks for the posting and attention to the fine work being done by Steve Stanchfield.
My recollection is that, while both Terrytoons and VB cartoons combine crazed exuberance with crude drawing, zero continuity and a “this is a cartoon – we can do anything we want, whenever” attitude, the Van Beurens have more sick jokes, risque bits, pointless bizarreness and WTF moments (the very elements I love about early 30’s rubber hose animation). Since I haven’t watched DVDS of Van Beuren cartoons and Terrytoons from 1931-1933 side by side – and, boy, that would be a “not for the squeamish” gorge-fest of drunken cartoon fun – to test your statement that the two are fairly indistinguishable. Perhaps there are many “bowl of WTF” Terrytoons I haven’t seen.
Curiously, when VB brought in the likes of Burt Gillett and Shamus Culhane to upgrade their product, draftsmanship improved and the cartoons became cutesy and a lot less entertaining.